The Different Injuries You May See

The large part of a personal injury claim is decided upon something called pain and suffering damages. Pain and suffering is a type of noneconomic damages, meaning that this is more of a subjective type of damage. Determining pain and suffering can be very difficult. This is why it is important to hire an experienced attorney who can evaluate all of your injuries.

Types of Injuries

There are two main categories of injuries that play a role in your claim and possible settlement:

1. Soft tissue injuries: usually the discomfort described by the patient, and

2. “Hard“ injuries: injuries that can be detected through medical examination.

Soft Tissue Injuries

The easiest way to understand soft tissue injuries is to look at the strains or sprains of your ligaments or muscles. A sprained back, knee, neck or ankle are referred to as soft tissue injuries because they are only involves in muscles and other soft connective tissue. Regardless of how painful it is, these types of injuries are usually not permanent or dangerous.

“Hard” Injuries

These injuries are considered to be more dangerous than soft tissue injuries. Statistically, your settlement award will be much higher if you have “hard“ injuries than soft tissue injuries. Usually, a thorough medical examination, such as, x-rays, MRIs or other tests will describe your injury as something other than a strain or sprain. Example of “hard” injuries that you may think would not be considered “hard” injuries are injuries such as pinched nerve and joint separation. Other categories of “hard“ injuries are: broken bones, head injuries, dislocations, wounds and spinal/vertebrae injuries. Any of these types of injuries will likely make your settlement award go much higher. It is also common to develop injuries that will require healing far after your settlement has been awarded. That is why it is important consult with your doctor and have them explain whether or not future pain will result from the injuries sustained from your car accident, slip-and-fall and other personal injuries.

Conclusion

As you can see, it can be very hard to determine the extent of your injuries because of the many factors that go into it. It is more than just an “injury.“ There are multitude of ways to classify your injuries and it is important to speak to an experienced attorney who will understand your injuries, which will in turn, help you get the settlement award you deserve. Contact our attorney today to discuss your injuries!